User blog:StaraptorEmpoleon/Simple taxonomy and why animals have scientific names
So this is my first blog post! Why animals and other living things have scientific names A lot of people think "why do we have scientific names?" Simple reason: many animals and plants have similar names. I'm going to use the the peacock. *English: Blue peafowl, Congo peafowl, green peafowl, pheasant, peacock bass, peacock butterfly *Spanish: Pavo real *Japanese: Kujaku *French: Paon *German: Pfau *Chinese: Kǒngquè etc. How about our feline friends, the cat? *English: Cat *Spanish: Gato *Japanese: Neko *French: Chat *German: Katze *Chinese: Māo etc. See how confusing it is? The peacock and cat have several names in different languages! Besides, which kind of cat am I talking about? Pallas's, African golden, marbled, wild, jungle, sand, Andean, fishing, flat-headed (see how many different types of mammals have the name 'cat' in them)? Oh, there's the Congo peafowl and green peafowl too. Note that there's also a peacock pheasant, butterfly and bass! Confusing, isn't it? But what do we do to solve this? We give them scientific names. Scientific names are usually a mix of Greek or Latin and sometimes other languages as well. So what are the scientific names of the peacock and cat? *''Pavo cristatus'' *''Felis catus'' That clears things up. Turns out I'm talking about the domestic cat and the common peafowl ("peacock" is technically a male of the species). Scientific names can be used in any language, not just English, but Japanese and French as well. Scientific names help tell people what a person is talking about. When a person says "Oh, that's a Pavo cristatus!", another can say "oh! I know what you're talking about!" Some simple taxonomy So... how do we classify living things? Most animals, including the common peafowl and domestic cat, have a classification. *Kingdom: A rank in the classification of organisms, below domain(*) and above phylum; a taxon at that rank (e.g. the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom) From Wiktionary (definition 2) *Phylum: A rank in the classification of organisms, below kingdom and above class; also called a division, especially in describing plants; a taxon at that rank **Mammals belong to the phylum Chordata. From Wiktionary (definition 1) *Class: A rank in the classification of organisms, below phylum and above order; a taxon of that rank. From Wiktionary (definition 9) *Order: A rank in the classification of organisms, below class and above family; a taxon at that rank. From Wiktionary (definition 8) *Family: A rank in the classification of organisms, below order and above genus; a taxon at that rank. From Wiktionary (definition 4) *Genus: a rank in the classification of organisms, below family and above species; a taxon at that rank From Wiktionary (definition 1) *Species: A rank in the classification of organisms, below genus and above subspecies(*); a taxon at that rank. From Wiktionary (definition 2) (I have completely forgotten the saying that goes along with remembering this...) (*) There are other classification terms, but we won't go in depth with that yet. Classification of the common peafowl *Kingdom: Animalia (animals): In scientific usage, a multicellular organism that is usually mobile, whose cells are not encased in a rigid cell wall (distinguishing it from plants and fungi) and which derives energy solely from the consumption of other organisms (distinguishing it from plants). From Wiktionary (definition 2) *Phylum: Chordata (chordates): numerous animals having a notochord at some stage of their development; in vertebrates this develops into the spine. From Wiktionary (definition 1) *Class: Aves (birds): A member of the class of animals Aves in the phylum Chordata, characterized by being warm-blooded, having feathers and wings usually capable of flight, and laying eggs. **Ducks and sparrows are birds. From Wiktionary (definition 1) *Order: Galliformes (gal-ih-FOR-meez ) (gamebirds, fowl, gallinaceous gal-ih-NAY-shus birds): a taxonomic order - the turkeys, grouse, quails and pheasants etc. From Wiktionary (definition 1)... I dubbed it down since I'm not going to cover the harder taxonomy yet). *Family: Phasianidae (fay-sih-AN-ih-day Terres, John K. (1980). The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.. ISBN 0394466519.) (turkeys, pheasants, etc.): Terrestrial, ground living species of birds From Wiktionary *Genus: Pavo: the peafowl (peacocks). *Species: cristatus: crested or having a crest. Classification of the domestic cat *Kingdom: Animalia. *Phylum: Chordata. To be finished later. It's passed 1 o'clock (AM)... References Category:Blog posts